very same policies that failed our country so badly. >> and in virginia, governor romney stepped up his attacks. >> you want four more years like the last four years? i mean you want four more years where 23 million americans are struggling to have a good job? >> will this be the lasting image of this closing campaign? >> i cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for our state and for the people of our state. >> i just want to thank him for his extraordinary leadership and partnership. >> and tale of two cities. the daly show's take on the manhattan power divide. >> here in manhattan the power's still out downtown, or as we refer to it now, little north korea. now, what does that -- >> it's a machete, john.

two types of folks here in no juice town. people with machetes and dead people without machetes. >> ojohn what are things like u there. >> i was describe, it's a total health game up here. for starters, i don't want to cause a panic, sarin dipty has run out of mocha sprinkles. >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. joining me on the phone, new york congressman peter king, whose long island district includes long beach, jones beach, especially hard hit. thank you for taking time. i know you've been touring the district. what are the most critical needs and where? >> southern part of the district, south massapequa, lindenhurst, devastated. there are shells of homes. in tragedies are alike.

people's furn titure in street, life long momentums destroyed. fortunately not a great loss of life. three or maybe four have been killed. there was a very good all levels of government, state, county, towns and villages, so there's a lot of cooperation. the main thing right now, i would say, is to get people's power back on. there's 1.1 million customers in long island power authority and over 900,000 lost power. it's unprecedented. and that includes the hospital, police stations, fire departments, schools. you know right down the line. but it's, again, almost 90% of the residents in nassau county have lost their power. >> you've been everywhere. yesterday helping constituents clean home in sea brook harbor. as a committee chairman you have

unique power and authority, certainly you've been in touch with fema and other homeland security official. what more can they do for you? >> secretary napolitano, she called me when i was at a home, believe it the no a 9/11 mother who lost two sons, her home was devastated. and janet call made at time, she spoke to the mother. fema's implanted in the police emergency command center. we have fema right there doing outstanding job. right now, helping us go door-to-door to locate people that might be missing, trying to locate more fuel to come in and then also, setting up a location in suffolk county, nassau county, community college, a school in lindenhurst where people can go, it's an all-purpose center run by fema

and the counties, which will provide emergency assistance, whether it's housing, whether it's aid to rebuild homes. right now the main thing is restore people's power because colder weather's coming. you have many people or senior citizens who are either living -- lost their homes or living in homes absolutely no power whatsoever. and that's having an impact, impact on gasoline. there's believe it or not, it's hard to find atm machines because the port of new york's been closed. there's a short of food new york refrigerati refrigeration. a lot of people eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and things like that. the new york, long island metropolitan area. it's primmive over the last several days. traffic lights out. a series of accidents and always an increase in burglaries and

lootings during times like this. the nassau suffolk police and state police joined in. that situation's under control but too bad that we even have to face that issue. >> i want to quick pli aly ask politics should stop at floodwater's edge but there's a lot of criticism of chris christie, the republican keynoter from the convention, being, you know, side by side with president obama and praising president obama. do you have any president with what your republican colleague in new jersey did yesterday? >> no. president obama is doing what he had to do. governor christie's doing what he feels he has to do. but i lived and breathes politicked. to show you how i've become obsessed with the tragedy in my district i got a colleague from msnbc asking what governor christie said about president obama. christie attacked him based on past performance. i'm living in a bubble right now. i had no idea.

if i had to look at it overall and stark politics it's a short-term benefit to the president. by election day, people will make whatever decision they're going to make, obviously hime hoping for governor romney. president obama's doing what he has to do. it's important for the country. >> thank you so much. thanks for what you're doing for all of your folks and good luck to you. >> thank you. >> in the district. airports are shut down by hurricane sandy but beginning to resume operations slowly. this morning, laguardia airport, completely flooded during the storm, reopened limited service office jfk and newark opened. tom kos tell la made his way to laguardia overnight. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: this is the good news. actual -- we've got passengers. we've got people pulling up to the curbs and importantly planes on the ramps. we were here with the first

plane landed here at laguardia. two runways here running and operational. delta planes here, american, air tran p so the big players are moving in. us airways hoping they can get up and running tomorrow. it's a truncated schedule today. it's not a full operation. but the hope is, it's a start and it will continue over the coming days. jfk and newark, also of course up and running. let me show you what they had to overcome here at laguardia. take a look at the flooding that we have seen here. this week, because of hurricane sandy, and in some cases water up to the jet bridge, so they had to clean all of that out. they had to make sure electronics, lights, everything were working right there on the runway and then start bringing in the planes. you can't fly people out if you don't have planes to fly them out. so planes have been coming in and slowly but surely getting up to speed. >> and the other side of the island, you've got mobs of people trying to get on to buses. you've got the subways not running, tunnels flooded, amtrak

not fully operational. what about mass transit in the city in the new york city marathon. we'll be talking to craig melvin on staten island about that later. >> reporter: it's a mess. we have seen people, lined up, literally, a thousand people long waiting for a bus to take them into the city because, as you mentioned, subway service dramatically curtailed. nothing below 34th treat working. above 34th street on the island it's catch as catch can. depends on which line and which train, and if you're lucky enough to get one running. train service also curtailed. for amtrak service, still nothing between new york city and boston. hoping to get some limit service up and running today. the hope is that that will start tomorrow. but you know, across this region, they're doing all they can to get up to speed. in the meantime you've got all

of these people, thousands, trying to get on buses trying to get to work. >> tom costello, thank you for staying on top of all of that. joining me now, republican congressman chris smith. congressman, thanks so much. you have had a fema briefing. >> the latest is they are trying to do everything possible but still huge gaps that have to be overcome. i'm actually now in the mayor's office of tony fiore, the township of middletown's mayor. and the real heroes, i can't stress this without enough ex-plamati ex-plamatiex p ex-pla exclamation points the mayors and those working around the clock. 200 homes or more uninhab bitable. people are cold, they're doing everything possible to you know get power back on. and you know, we're very concerned about families with small children, as well as with

those with fragile, you know, elderly who could get very sick and very quickly. so, you know, the real story, the story, in my opinion, is not the photo opes, it's the mayors and the oen people. >> what about gas leaks and natural gas and the question of -- >> very concerned. we had a number of fires that's part of my district. i was actually on the beach yesterday and 15, 20 feet away, weiss walked by with mayor dempsey the smell of natural gas was so pun gent, that we moved further away. if you lit a match, it would have went up, that's how bad it was. gas people are trying to turn off, find it it's -- the switches are deep within six, seven eight feet of sand. there's a real crisis there with

gas and potential of explosions and fires which we've already seen. and i smelled it myself on the shoreline. of course, point pleasant is the next town over and they, too, have had huge problems like you have reported on so well. >> congressman, this is the last thing on people's minds but are people able to vote? will this election be held in -- >> hello? >> if you can still hear me? congressman chris smith. we may have lost our connection. i think -- i think we've lost congressman chris smith, who is calling in from the field in new jersey. we thank him. floodwaters in hoboken new jersey starting to recede, revealing devastation sandy left behind. power's out for thousands of customers. nbc's katy tur has been in hoboken and reporting. slightly better scene today, the floodwaters are being pumped out. but what is left behind is of course another whole story.

katy? >> reporter: yeah, of course. it's a much different scene than when we saw yesterday. you saw me in shin-high water a few blocks from here. waters have receded in the majority of the area. streets are clear. what is left, nothing anyone wants to deal with. this is sludge, mud, sewage. you don't want to think about what's in the water or in this muck, i should say. look at this basement here. there's a lot of water around here, though. four to six feet of water. and that's why they're still pumping and that's why it takes so long. don't be fooled by the streets being cleared. 500 million gallons of watfe wa would take two days. pumping all day, maybe tonight, tomorrow morning this water will be gone and then getting to the power lines. look where the water line was. this is about four feet high. i'm, you know, 5'3" on a good

day. this probably four feet high and that's why people couldn't get out of their houses. for the first time yesterday they were able to leave their houses. no majority of the town can get out. they're assessing the damage. they're cleaning up, scoping out the garages, digging out basements and pumping it out. pumps going across this town. trying to get this one started here. it's not working so well. but behind me you can't see it, there are too many cars. pumps working. that's why it's so loud. a lot of power issues here ppse&g said yesterday to the mayor, seven to ten days before the town got power. 85% without power. so we're estimating, there's 50,000 people, majority 40,000 without power. national guard is here, handing out supplies. but the mayor did issue an urgent plea. anybody in surrounding towns who can get here, it's still hard to get here, bring food, water, to bring generators, that's the big

thing, they need generators, batteries, flashlights, anything they can use here in hoboken. it's an ongoing disaster in this part of town, at least. >> taty te e katy tur. >> turning to politics and the sprint to the finish for the presidential campaign, our daily fix, chris cillizza, msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com and mark halperin, analyst for "time" and msnbc. the state of the race, the president's back campaigning, we can tell where the candidates are going to be, where they think the fire wall is. chris cillizza i noticed that you and your column and "the washington post" on your battleground map at least have put ohio in a toss-up state leaning democratic. why the change? >> well, you know, andrea, this is probably a change, i put it on myself, this is a change we should have made about five to seven days ago. i think you saw mitt romney move into certainly from down six to

eight to down one to two to three in most polling after his debate performance. and that's stayed steady. we did in the write-up note that i do think barack obama is still ahead in the state. and as you mentioned, you can always follow their feet where they're going. mitt romney's spending a huge amount of time in ohio in the next few days, as is, i would say, barack obama. i think both campaigns recognize this is a not only a close race, because there are a lot of close races in states, but this is a place that mitt romney probably has to have. so, if ever there's going to be a place where they both fight because of the stakes are so high, i think ohio's it. i think it belongs where we now have it, which is in those eight states, ones we know, florida, new hampshire, iowa, virginia, nevada, colorado, new hampshire, i think ohio belongs in that group. i put it on myself i should have put it in there a few days

before now. >> mark halperin, take a look at nbc news poll, iowa, president up but wisconsin and new hampshire, we're talking about a really closely fought race. >> based on the totality of the public and private polling the only us in is on governor romney to depp street get to 270 electoral votes. i think governor romney starts with a challenge which is florida, north carolina, and colorado. if he can win those three, and i think he's got a decent chance in all, although the president hasn't given up on colorado and florida, then he needs to find a couple other -- a couple of options, one is to just win ohio. if he can't win ohio, and virginia also, he needs to win virginia also, okay, if he can't win ohio he needs to find another way. states of the three polls you showed as well as pennsylvania, michigan, he needs to offset a

loss in ohio. ohio's the simplest and most competitive the reason they're looking at other options they can't count on ohio. if they can put our building blocks in place, they need find one or two other states, may or may not include ohio. >> and chris cillizza, iowa and wisconsin could be the alternatives to ohio, could they not? >> absolutely, andrea. but, mark's right. what's hard is the easiest substitution is pennsylvania or michigan. they're more or roughly the same number of electoral votes. there isn't another ohio on the map. you would need a two-state combo to add up to 18 electoral votes. i tend to think, not just because of nbc poll which i believe, i but i toned think that iowa's more difficult at the moment than wisconsin for mitt romney. i think we may look back on this election and wonder why mitt romney didn't spend more time in wisconsin. he's not been there a lot.

my friend and colleague jonathan martin noted he hasn't been there since early september. we may look back and say, given where ohio was, why wasn't romney living in wisconsin if he wines up losing it and coming up short. >> running mate's home state. >> paul ryan 's from there, right. >> mark, it isn't too crude, i don't think, because we're talking about politics and talking about the closing days, to ask the question, was this horrible storm and his response to it so far, and chris christie's embrace of him, so far, at least a benefit the october surprise, a been fit to president obama? >> i think it's pretty hard to come up and with any spin on it or take on it beyond that it's been a benefit for the president. is it a benefit for the president that decides outcome? i can't rule that out. some republicans believe that's the case. it's blotting out all news coverage nationally and the contested states in a way

keeping governor romney from getting his momentum out. and so it's possible. but i think this is -- i think this was determined before the storm, is my gut, one way or the other. >> mark halperin, chris cillizza, thank you very much. how will the president continue to juggle responding to the storm and the demands of the re-election campaign. talk to former deck policy adviser melody barnes next. people who are suffering from sandy, go to nbcnews.com and click on how you can help. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only right here on msnbc. a li boring. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada... really good. yes! [ jack ] ...and alicia. ♪ this girl is on fire [ male announcer ] use any citi® card to get the benefits of private pass. more concerts. more events. more experiences. [ jack ] hey, who's boring now?

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we need -- we need assistance. staten island was the hard effort bore borough hit.

as small as it is we need assistance here. no one has come here. there is no red cross. no first responders, not even a local politician has shown up down here. this is midland beach and south beach. we need assistance. we need to know where to go, what to do, people lost their homes. they had homes. now they're homeless, no place to go. we can't travel to where you want us to go. our cars are submerged under water. our homes are filled with the raw sewage and the sea watt that piled in there. we are finding debris. and there's -- what we see here is a search and recovery team, still looking for dead bodies. people that are held unaccountable for so this death toll is going up. but you need to come here and help us. we need assistance, please. >> city of new york right now talking about getting water out of the battery tunnel and

preparing for a marathon. we're pulling bodies out of water. >> that was staten island congressman michael grimm and obviously panic stricken resident of staten island the borough particularly hard hit by the storm and aftermath. the nypd confirmed bodies of two boys found, ripped from their mother's arms when floodwaters overwhelmed their car. 2 and 4 years old. craig melvin is on staten island, new york. coincidentally, but related to this, craig the new york marathon starts in staten island. i've run the marathon, i'm a huge supporter of the marathon, it's a glorious event for new york but one has to ask, despite the need to rally the city and raise money and all of that chick input, people are asking, why now, why the new york marathon this weekend? craig?

>> reporter: andrea, bear with me here. i've lost my ifb here. i want to show you what's left of the neighborhood in staten island. take a look behind me, we've seen folks over the past hour go into their homes for the first time, we talked to a number of them, all of them say pretty much the same thing, their homes are destroyed. we've also seen the inspectors starting to look at some of the houses, deem whether any are salvageable. i also spent time talking to folks trapped on the rooftops. three different families on rooftops here got stuck. also, chatted with the man who says he clung to a tree for about seven hours. so the folks here have been talking about how they've survived the storm. as you heard, that's starting to become frustration. a number of folks have talked about, at great length, how frustrated they are with the

disconnect between effort in new york city, the effort in manhattan and on staten island. two boys, bodies were recovered here about an hour or so ago. also an elderly couple as well, we were told by congressman grimm, their bodies had been recovered a short time ago. that brings the death toll here on staten island to 19. congressman michael grimm also said, i want to read this, he told me a short time ago, when i asked him about the new york city marathon going on, despite what's happening here, he said the city of new york is talking about getting water out of a tunnel, talking about cutting down trees and in central park, here we are in staten island pulling bodies out of the water. the disconnect between the city and staten island shared by folks and the congressman as well. back to you. >> thank you, craig melvin. we apologize for not having all of the communications, understandable given the situation. we'll follow up as well.

speaking of new jersey wednesday, president obama assured the victims of the storm that he would take care of them. >> what i can promise you is that the federal government will be working as closely as possible with the state and local officials and we will not quit until this is done. >> as we see, a tall order. joining me, former director of the white house domestic policy council, melody barne. a former member of the obama team. this is an enormous challenge and the president's been given high marks for what he's done so far by none other than chris christie. >> right. >> but how does -- how do they keep this going? we've all seen how political figures in the past, from the mayors to governors to presidents, have tripped on these kinds of disaster reresponses. >> i think the president said it the other day, as president, his first, second, and third responsibility is to the american people, to the people whose lives have been devastated by this storm and to making sure

that they get what they need, that the federal government cuts through all red tape. there is no bureaucracy so they can support the states and the governors and the localities getting the job done. he took an oath and that's his first and second responsibility. and then everything else has to follow behind that, andrea. >> chris cillizza was saying earlier, from "the washington post," that they have now put ohio from lean democrat to toss-up where it's been on other battleground maps as well for quite some time. the question now is, the path to 270 for both candidates, how nervous are people in chicago? they say they're not, they have this very sophisticated computer modeling they can get voters out. but there's places they can't get voters out and there's the human element. are they relying too much on science and not enough on shoe leather? >> absolutely not. one of the hallmarks of the 2008

campaign was the ground game, people on the ground, been in neighborhoods, communities, talking to people and able to go back and flock on doors and get people out to vote that ground game still exists. at the same time what we've also always said is that this is a close election. this isn't a surprise to anyone. i think we're all waiting for next tuesday and at the same time, the campaign is confident about what's going to happen next. part of the confidence, i believe, comes from the early voting. and what we've seen. ohio, you mentioned ohio, reality is that since the early voting began, there have been nine polls out there, and all of those polls show that the president's leading in early voting. that's the momentum we're taking into the election day. it's going to be close. but at the same time we believe that we have the infrastructure in place to do it, and beyond that, we believe the american people have a reason to support the president. they have a reason to go vote for him. it's a kind of thing that i was hear, i was telling you, i've just been in my hometown of

richmond, r. virginia, as people engage me i hear they want this president to be re-elected and that's a battleground state as well. >> of course. the romney campaign says that they have the advantage in many of these states. they say that they have an advantage in early voting that has not been properly counted, you know, both sides claiming the same voters. and that to a certain extent people who counted voting early are robbing the bank of voter whose are going to vote on election day. it's not necessarily something that you can take for granted. >> well, we're not taking anyone for granted, but i believe that what this shows is momentum and at the same time you have issues like you know the jeep ad and the romney campaign dabbling in misinformation that tells voters i have yet to go to the polls. this is the campaign he's running. this is the kind of person that you can vote for versus the president and many have said to me, the president with regard to

health care and education, the economy coming back, consumer confidence going up, these are reasons that we believe he should be re-elected. i think we're not taking anyone for granted. but at the same time we see momentum moving in right direction in what will be a very close election. >> thank you so much, melody barnes. good to see you again. on the road with the romney campaign in virginia. stay with us. [ male announcer ] attention medicare beneficiaries. open enrollment is here. the time to choose your medicare coverage begins october 15th and ends december 7th.

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mitt romney back in virginia today, holding a ralfully roanoke this morning and getting ready for another event in dowel in the next hour. peter alexander traveling with the romney campaign and joins me on the phone now. where is dowel? >> reporter: good question. first time i've been as well. richmond, virginia, we're on our way there as we speak. the plane touching down a short time ago. this morning, as noted started in an area conservative, in an effort to boost republican votes, votes for mitt romney

there. he made point to the audience that gathered in a window and door factory. making a shortstop at a place here called bill's barbecue, a business that went out of business in september after 82 years. they put out a webcam pain, the campaign did about this business in an effort to try to tie this business shutting its doors to what mitt romney likes to refer to as the obama economy. but be very clear, after two days where governor romney hadn't once mentioned the president's name, he was lacing his attacks with the name obama this morning, specifically hitting him on a comment that the president made on msnbc earlier this week, saying that he would propose, create, a secretary of business to try to consolidate several agencies within the government. mitt romney attacked that saying i don't think adding a claire to the cabinet would help as millions of jobs in main street. it's a line we expect later on

today. >> peter alexander on the road, four stops in virginia, tell you how important that state is. five days to go. how is the race impacting battle for congress, the senate and the house? starting this weekend, turning rockefeller plaza into democracy plaza. lots of historical information. come visit. live from there starting sunday through election day. we'll have a special show sunday at 3:00. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. begin. tomato, obviously. haha. there's more than that though, there's a kick to it. wahlalalalallala! smooth, but crisp. it's kind of like drinking a food that's a drink, or a drink that's a food, woooooh! [ male announcer ] taste it and describe the indescribable. could've had a v8.

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folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. i'd say happier than a slinky on an escalator. get happy. get geico. melons!!! oh yeah!! well that was uncalled for. folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. how happy, ronny? happier than gallagher at a farmers' market. get happy. get geico. not going redirect any focus by, keep in mind, by sunday we'll have a electricity back downtown. that will free up an enormous number of police. also, a lot of the transportation needs that we have during the week aren't there on the weekends, police officers and once electricity comes back where we put police officers to make sure everybody's safe when it's dark or also to work into sections,

those will be gone. police are there to keep the peace, if you will, and they really aren't going to be involved in the massive cleanup. that's the sanitation department, fire department's resources, once they do all of the security, they'll go back and clean their equipment and get some rest that they're bright-eyed if there is another emergency. also we have the city a city where we are to go on. an enormous number of people here. it's a shame we had to cancel the basketball game. >> mike bloomberg answering questions about the decision to hold the new york marathon on sunday, as scheduled. still planning to do that. running through all five boroughs starting in staten island which has been absolutely stricten in the storm. half of new york in the dark with 4.5 million people across northeast without power. new york and new jersey comprise

nearly two-thirds of total storm out annuals. in the new york area reopening of closed tunnels, roads and bridges starting to happen. restoration of bus service brought sigh of relief 0 commuter but was long lines. new obstacles to getting around. gas lines, massive lines for buses in new york. adding another layer to the misery of the storm's aftermath. the statue of liberty and ellis island sustained damage. the exhibit hall are okay. national park service told nbc news that the infrastructure is seriously damaged. it was just rehabbed. and the closely fought presidential race is also going to have an impact on a lot of house and senate races as well. joining is a former democratic congresswoman from california, former undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, and

david winston, republican strategist. welcome, david and ellen, it seems from all accounts, that it's very, very unlikely that the house is going to change hands, the senate is still in play. but there are a lot of interesting races out there. david, first of all, right now mitt romney around virginia with george alan at his side, a close race with tim kaine, two former governors running against each other and george alan running for his former senate seat. we're hearing it is tim kaine marginally ahead but close to 50/50 race. >> this is a close race. this fizz republicans are going to pick up majority one of the key states where the opportunity lies having said that, when you've soon a lot of the survey, surveys seem to have it even or slight edge to governor kaine. one of the problems that we're all trying to work through here is, so what is this electorate going to look like? in virginia an interesting mix of different types of voters and

in terms of independents, african-americans that mix is critical. >> and, ellen, another very, very close, perhaps the closest senate race in the country, montana. >> that's right. >> and senator tester, the democrat, who might just barely hold on. a lot of outside money going into montana which didn't used to permit that. >> yes. you know this is all about turnout, as usual. i think there's a lot more momentum in the last 72 years. frankly there was even the last 72 days for some of these races. i think it will be very important to see what the voter turnout is. early voting numbers are ticking up in the states and we'll have to see where they are in montana tonight. >> what about nevada? what are you seeing out there, david? where harry reid operation proved in the past it's formidable but that you've got the democratic candidate holding on. this is a seat that could go either way obviously, 48/45 in our latest polling. >> yeah, i'd have to say, i

mean, harry reid's operation is impressive in terms of how he won last time. in recent polling we've begun to see the republicans start to create some distance here and hellors like at least at this point better each day. i suggest momentum probably with, and again another one of seats if republicans regain majority in the senate. a must-win seat. >> what about senate sprys? bob casey in a closer than should have been race given the large democratic registration edge in the state of pennsylvania? >> senator casey's been all over the state. and he was really encouraging the obama campaign to stay in the state though the numbers look like, and the money was moving out, four five weeks ago, senator casey raised more money. he's up on tv. i think that he's going to pull it out. >> you think in your old stheet

congressman pete stark, democrat challenged by another democrat. >> yes, my former intern. it's basically a tight race. we had two things happen in california. the normal redistricting but this time it was nonpart dan. so we also had a state ballot initiative for the top two, no matter what party vote getters in the primary would go to the general. two democrats in california 15, eric's knocked on 70,000 doors, outraised stark and "the new york times" thinks he's going to win. larry sabado think he's going to win. 28% undecided now. >> in the few seconds left, david, any big surprise you want to suggest? >> one of the things people should be looking at, does it look like 2008, was very favorable to the democrats or is it more like 2004, which is obviously favorable to republicans. one of the big things people are try trog work through and understand, which eleelectorates

it going to look more like? >> david and ellen, great to have you. thanks so mump to boch to both . a benefit telethon tomorrow to help victims of hurricane sandy hosted by matt lauer with performances including bruce springsteen and jon bon jovi tomorrow night 8:00 eastern right here on msnbc.rn tr ent as prilosec otc. now with a fancy coating that gives you a burst of wildberry flavor. now why make a flavored heartburn pill? because this is america. and we don't just make things you want, we make things you didn't even know you wanted. like a spoon fork. spray cheese. and jeans made out of sweatpants. so grab yourself some new prilosec otc wildberry. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.

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from thought to trade, on every screen. and all in real time. which makes it just like having your own trading floor, right at your fingertips. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. try our easy-to-use scottrader streaming quotes. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. issue of global warming and climate change and how to deal with it hasn't gotten very much play in the election. in the aftermath of sandy that could change. one of the issues raised in the cover of the new "time" magazine, lessons from the storm on sale in this part of the country. the rest of the country will see a preelection issue. richard stengel. two covers and those of us living in this part of the country and thinking about the coast and seeing all of the devastation really want to know

more about climate change, about these coastal communities, the kinds of issues that governor quomo and new york raised and we have not we have not heard enough of, anything of, from either of these candidates in any of the debates. >> yes. governor cuomo was eloquent about it. he talked about this idea that we are having 100-year events every couple of years these days. and you can't have an absolute cause and effect between climate change and these events, but there are certain manmade aspects of this which is that we're building in places we shouldn't be building. our infrastructure is old. our transportation infrastructure, it's from the last century. and we are not accommodating ourselves to the new reality. the idea that these kinds of events may happen more frequently. if you look at the infrastructure in places like the netherlands, you know, they've been spending 50 years preparing for events like this, and we haven't been. we're very much more exposed. and the fact that it hasn't been talked about in the election, that nobody's talking about

infrastructure, folks like governor cuomo, is a problem. >> richard, when i was looking at the cover the other night, the night of the storm and we had our correspondents from nbc and from the weather channel standing there in battery park city, that seawall was practically nonexistent. the water came up to 13 feet and easily breached. we saw the subways flooded. we have not done the infrastructure repairs. we all want to have the option of living along the jersey shore. and i don't know what the answer there is. >> right. >> for the beautiful vistas of living so close to the ocean. but, you know, how do you approach this with an old city like new york? >> i think there has to be -- i mean, some of the candidates have talked about it during -- over the course of the year, and there are governors who have talked about an infrastructure bank. if you look at manhattan, it may seem like a 21st century city to us. in fact, it's an 18th and 19th century city. there's so much landfill

downtown. there aren't much berms or barriers. the subway was a miracle 100 years ago. it's now an antique. the problem is there isn't any kind of overwhelming desire on the part of public officials, states, voters to actually finance this kind of thing because it will take billions and billions of dollars and decades. >> well, you're at least talking about it. you're raising it with your cover story. and i should point out that the political articles, the debate between e.j. dionne and rick lowrie, the two campaigns, and the piece that joel stein wrote about gary johnson and how his lib eertarian run could actuall change, you know, the nevada and colorado results, must-reading. this is a really great issue of "time." richard stengel, thanks so much for joining us. and we'll be right back. johan comes in a porcelain vessel, crafted with care by a talented blonde from sweden.

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and that does it for this

edition of "andrea mitchell reports." we'll have a special edition on sunday. watch us tomorrow, of course, and my colleague, tamron hall, has a look at what's next. >> andrea, every edition of your show is special, come on. >> thank you. closing arguments. right now president obama lays out a new vision for what or who his campaign is fighting for. we'll play the latest remarks from the president on the campaign trail. plus, governor romney picks up the tagline he was using before hurricane sandy. the tagline that he is the candidate of change this time around. with five days left, we'll look at why the states the candidates are visiting over the next few days could tell us more than any poll you could read today. and former new mexico governor and obama supporter bill richardson will join me live. we'll talk with him about his thoughts on where the obama campaign stands. plus, rush limbaugh and a few other conservatives are now slamming governor christie, accusing him of aiding the president's electoral chances.

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